"Dispersal Everywhere!" is an invitation to dance, an invitation to a gathering at a polite distance and a moving ritual to conjure up the art of those who are absent: those who take part in the international radio ballet give a body to the voices and movement instructions transmitted via headphones from dance and performance artists from all over the world and makes their movement language tangible. This creates a physical bond across countries and continents despite closed borders and travel restrictions.
The idea for this extraordinary project came from the LIGNA group, which consists of the media and performance artists Ole Frahm, Michael Hüners and Torsten Michaelsen. On the one hand, it is a consistent continuation of their previous work with radio interventions in public space and, at the same time, a reaction to the social changes triggered by Covid-19. In urban interventions and performative installations, the trio has been researching the possibilities for action of dispersed and temporarily connecting collectives since 2002. The artistic format of the radio ballet developed by LIGNA, which has already proven itself successfully in public spaces such as main train stations and shopping centers, provides the ideal setting for your current production.
How have our bodies changed, how have societies changed during this time of global threat from the pandemic? LIGNA asked thirteen international artists this question and asked them for a spoken choreographic contribution. The answers received come from, among others, Geumhyung Jeong (South Korea), Eisa Jocson (Philippines) or Mamela Nyamza (South Africa), who have been associated with the theater spectacle for a long time. LIGNA has put the small, sometimes cheerful, humorous, sad or profound pieces together into a polyphonic choreography. The performance location for the radio ballet, for which the Bulgarian composer Emilian Gatsov wrote the music, is a public square where the audience spreads out in accordance with the applicable distance rules, to set the world in motion as a distanced collective - at least a little. "Dispersal Everywhere!" is a suggestion for a different kind of planetary coexistence and care for one another », writes LIGNA. (kdi)